Once Upon A Time Drabbles
by Kathryn Claire O'Connor
Summary: A collection of 100-word drabbles, eventually one for each episode. *Also my 250th story!*
1. Chapter 1

Henry didn't really _like _the idea of stealing; some things just had to be done. Emma Swan – the _Savior_ – had to be found and brought back to Storybrooke, and it wasn't like a ten-year-old had enough money to see to it that happened – not without some… assistance. For that, Henry had decided he could turn to his teacher, Miss Blanchard – Snow White under a curse. Not that she had to know she was helping, of course.

Henry glanced around before making quick work of retrieving the credit card he was after. Hopefully they would understand that stealing had been necessary.


	2. Chapter 2

It had hurt Regina more than she had possibly expected it would when she'd had to rip her own father's heart out – really it had. He had loved her, and she really had loved him – loved him the most, like the curse had specified. He was her _father_; she was his _daughter_. To love and be loved was only natural in that sort of relationship, right?

So what, she sometimes wondered, was wrong with her as Henry's mother? She knew, of course she did, that she was also the Queen of the Enchanted Forest, but she was Henry's mother too.


	3. Chapter 3

Prince James really didn't understand her, and that really shouldn't bother Abigail – but for some reason his inattentiveness still managed to rub her the wrong way. She didn't care – for him or the situation – really, she didn't, but being with her fiancé was supposed to be a pleasant experience, right? Considering Frederick's death, she didn't expect it to be, no, but… it didn't seem right that it was _painful _to be around James either. On her end, it was her grief's fault, she decided, but then that didn't explain his own hesitancy. Perhaps he was hiding things from her too…?


	4. Chapter 4

It had been a surreal few months, Cinderella reflected as she stood on beside Prince Thomas. It had started with her stepmother forbidding her to leave her house, and then along came her fairy godmother… and then there was Rumplestiltskin destroying the whole scenario of a happy ending for her. Yet one deal later, she had thought she'd had her happily ever after back in the bag – until it came to actually upholding her end of the deal.

Nothing and no one was going to separate her from her baby, not even Rumplestiltskin. Even if it took defying the trickster.


	5. Chapter 5

Puppets. His whole life, for as long as he could remember, Jiminy had been surrounded by puppets. He'd stolen for his parents while unsuspecting people were distracted by puppet shows. He and his family had later been supported by a puppet show of their own. He'd been his _parents' _puppet, for that matter. That was why he so hated puppets, when it came down to it. He knew what it was to _be _a puppet.

All he'd wanted was to leave that life and to get as far away from it as possible… Instead he'd turned innocents into puppets themselves.


	6. Chapter 6

**Just so you know, the site has decided to get the word count wrong on some of these for whatever reason, but according to my Microsoft Word word count, they're all 100 words. And here's the same old news... I had to reboot my poll again if you'd like to go (re)cast your vote. I've got it narrowed down to ten options now and you get two votes! Thanks in advance!  
**

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David was confused, so very confused, and everyone around him knew it. He had amnesia, and confusion was definitely part of amnesia. However, no one had told him that having amnesia meant that everything that was supposed to be his life felt… _wrong. _It felt like his life... wasn't even his life. He had Kathryn, and a nice enough job at the animal shelter was waiting for him. But none of it felt right – _nothing at all _felt right, not his job that he couldn't yet return to, not his _life_. Nothing… except for when he was with Mary Margret.


	7. Chapter 7

Finally! Someone believed him! Henry was ecstatic – in his own way – when Graham showed up at his house, asking to see his book and at least warily listening to what Henry had to say. It was nice. As things were right now, it was special. It was important! At least one person now believed Henry concerning the storybook and the characters – people – it discussed. Graham's belief was a good place to start; it was progress in the right direction. After all the fighting and strain between Henry and the Evil Queen, it was what the boy needed. It was hope.


	8. Chapter 8

There was just something about the way that Mr. Gold had spoken to Emma about Henry… about children… as if he had a clue what he was talking about. Mr. Gold, knowing something about children, Emma mused. Perhaps even being a father himself? Nah, not a chance. The man was too… uncaring, too calculated, too powerful, to have ever been able to let his walls down far enough to become a good dad, right? And really, Emma couldn't possibly imagine how Mr. Gold's kid would turn out! It'd take a one-of-a-kind person to be a "true love" to that mess.


	9. Chapter 9

It meant a lot to Emma that Ava and Nicholas had met their father and that he'd decided to keep them instead of allowing them to be sent away to Boston. Emma was generally a very closed-off woman, but it was pretty obvious to Mary Margaret that she didn't even care to try and keep her happiness under wraps tonight. It was nice to see that quietly giddy side of her, to have her open up to Mary Margaret a little, and even to just have a silly conversation… about Henry's idea of her being Emma's mother of all things!


	10. Chapter 10

This was so sad! She was so… pathetic! 7:15. Rushing around in the mornings to go to Granny's by 7:15 to see David Nolan and to maybe even talk to him for five seconds – if she was lucky. Never mind the fact that the only reason he even came to Granny's was to get coffee for not only him, but also his wife. Yep, she was pathetic. She was uselessly, stupidly, helplessly in love with a married man. And for that, she was simply pathetic. But she couldn't help it! Like she'd told Emma, being in love was the worst.


	11. Chapter 11

Sidney Glass just didn't understand… well, himself. He had long decided that he was at least slightly off his rocker and in a number of ways just as pathetic as Miss Blanchard when it came to his (nonexistent) love life. He was a decent man, and a good reporter. He was good at his job, he had a good life and friends – he did! – and yet he found himself deeply, ridiculously in love with the mayor, Regina Mills – the one woman in town who was never, ever going to be within his reach – and he just couldn't figure out why.


	12. Chapter 12

Honestly, Rumplestiltskin didn't want to free his caretaker. But there was a part of himself (which he wasn't horribly willing to acknowledge) that was beginning to care for her enough – not that he _cared _for her – that he might do it regardless. She'd said it herself; she wanted to see the world, not just his estate. He always reminded himself that, should he let her go, she'd only be allowed to return to the fiancé she'd admitted she didn't want.

Then Gaston showed up, and Rumplestiltskin was quick to do away with him… and his excuse to keep Belle around.


	13. Chapter 13

**This one is, I confess, more of a prompt then anything, but I thought it fit with this episode well enough that I put it here anyway.**

* * *

Once the curse was broken, there were things that David purposely didn't allow himself to think about – things like his ex-wife, Kathryn. It wasn't that he – the shepherd-turned-prince husband of Snow White – loved Kathryn. He wasn't sure that even his Storybrooke counterpart ever had.

But he had _memories_ of loving her – years ago, according to Storybrooke David; having a _good _marriage, even if she openly claimed to have never loved him. Those memories had been designed to torture him as their marriage fell apart, but they did their worst to him even later, once he knew it was _all _false.


	14. Chapter 14

All Belle really knew firsthand about love was that it hurt in the end. The start was always interesting and fun, but then came the day-to-day things like opening up, telling the truth, doing and saying the right – not the wrong things – and making it through the arguments that came along – or not.

It was not accomplishing those nearly impossible day-to-day things that made love hurt, made people who once had dreams grumpy.

But the dwarf, Dreamy, didn't need to know that.

Yet, in the end, all he learned about love was that it hurt. It made "Dreamys" become "Grumpys."


	15. Chapter 15

Ruby Lucas knew for a fact that she had less than nothing in common with the sweet, demure, well, kind of _boring_ school teacher Mary Margaret Blanchard. She _knew _this. But she also knew that there was just something about the other woman that called to her. Not romantically, necessarily – because Ruby had lots of experience in dealing with _that_ sort of desire – but what she felt every great once in awhile for Mary Margaret was more of a… longing for a friendship, strange as it was. Like she wanted back a friend that she had lost from another life.


	16. Chapter 16

The cricket was right, Regina mused, watching in her mirror as Jiminy talked with _Prince_ _Charming_. Snow White would have to remember who _she _was before she could even begin – again – to love her shepherd boy, and that day seemed like it was going to be far away.

The thought made her smile.

Thanks to the potion that Snow White had gotten from Rumplestiltskin, the girl had quite possibly made her own fate a miserable one. Regina looked back to the mirror. As she watched, her happiness turned to rage.

Was there nothing that couldn't be beaten by True Love?!


	17. Chapter 17

There was nothing else in his life that Jefferson wanted to be more than he wanted to be able to be a good father to his daughter. He wanted her to have a reason to smile every second of the day and he wanted her to have everything that she ever wanted. But – as Regina had pointed out – it was hard to make dreams realities when you were a poor, fungus-selling single dad.

Regina had thoroughly convinced him that going on this _one last trip _with her – to Wonderland, unfortunately –was the answer. So how had it gone so wrong?!


	18. Chapter 18

Regina hated that no one in Storybrooke understood her pain. No one in the town understood what it was to lose that _one _who meant _everything _to you. Mr. Gold – Rumplestiltskin – would, but he didn't have his memories, and his getting them back was _not _something Regina was willing to sacrifice just so that her misery could have some company.

But she did have a small salve for her pain. When she thought of Daniel too often, she would go down into the asylum and peek in on Rumple's girl; she always looked miserable enough for the both of them.


	19. Chapter 19

It wasn't always like this. Baelfire constantly reminds himself of this. There's some stubborn – or hopeful – part of him that believes it could somehow go back to the way that it was before. Not before his mother left – he barely remembers her, but he does remember her making Papa miserable – just… before Papa took on the curse.

He was happy then; he had _friends_ then, even if he didn't have fine things like he does now! He just wishes that he could get Papa to see it that way.

Or maybe he could just make a deal with him instead!


	20. Chapter 20

Emma really was so little the last time he saw her that Pinocchio can hardly get past it. It's a good thing that she's grown, though. She's twenty-eight now, and that means that it's time. It's time for her to believe and to break the curse – and just in time too, considering the way Pinocchio himself was starting to turn back into wood.

However, he was coming to realize how skeptical Emma was, how much the world had hurt her, how much harder that made his job – and he became all the sorrier that he hadn't been there for her.


	21. Chapter 21

Regina could feel it, and it was starting to drive her up the wall; one way or another, the curse was getting ready to break.

Henry and Emma were getting too close to one another. The blonde was starting to _think_ that the son they shared might not just be "overly-imaginative," even if she didn't _believe_ it – yet.

But the end of the curse was coming, and that meant the price of magic was soon to be paid. On top of everything that would rain down when the curse broke, Regina wondered if she would be able to bear it.


	22. Chapter 22

Emma had never felt rage quite like this; despite her influx of _belief _all she could feel was righteous rage on the part of her possibly dying son.

Regina had never felt terror that was quite so bone-deep as this. Not only was her son _dying, _but the curse was _breaking_, and that meant that her demise was probably going to come not long after Henry's, if he did in fact pass on.

Snow White had never felt such joy and relief as she did when David – her Prince Charming and true love – kissed her again after far too long.


	23. Chapter 23

_Send me a postcard._

That's what Neal had told August the last time he'd seen him… and now here that postcard was. But he was definitely put off quite a bit by the solitary word scrawled across the back.

_Broken_

How the heck was Neal supposed to take that? Were the residents of Storybrooke "broken"? Was _Emma_ broken? All of the above? What was he supposed to do about it?

Considering who was in that town besides Emma – namely his father – was it really worth going to get answers to those questions?

Neal really wasn't sure… so he did nothing.


	24. Chapter 24

Tom Clark really, really didn't understand why the people in this previously perfectly sane little town were acting so totally out of their minds. Leroy kept trying to tell him that he wasn't Leroy, and that Tom wasn't Tom – that his name was _Sneezy _instead! Because he was supposed to believe that? Honestly? Nobody gave that sort of a name to their child, no way in the world!

But it wasn't just Leroy and the other dwarves going a little nuts; it was literally _everyone_ – as if everyone believed that they were someone beyond who he knew them to be.


	25. Chapter 25

Even years later, Jefferson's thoughts occasionally slid back to that conversation at the docks with Henry. It had been obvious that he had his own agenda concerning his mom and grandmother, but when he'd seen that Jefferson was holding Grace's poster… when he'd put the pieces together… he'd fought harder for his classmate than he had for his own family members.

Jefferson had known the vicarious speech for what it was, and that was why it was so… nice to be able to spot the boy around town, now surrounded by more family then he knew what to do with.


	26. Chapter 26

Ruby was worried. She worried a lot these days, but it was hard not to, considering how Snow White – her best friend – and Emma had literally dropped off into another realm, and who knew when they were going to be back here. David was working himself nearly to death trying to run the town and get them back, and it was driving Ruby nuts to be able to do little more than babysit Henry when the need arose.

The last thing she needed was to see an unfamiliar brunette come into the diner… but maybe a distraction would be welcome.


	27. Chapter 27

The thing about innocence was that it never lasted. Not for Regina, or Rumplestiltskin, or Emma, or even Henry. Once, where Regina hadn't even been able to kill a horse, there stood a woman who would attempt to strangle her own son-in-law in front of her son. Where there had been a downtrodden spinner, there was a manipulative magician. Where there had been a lonely girl, living an equally hard, yet normal, life, there was a woman who was being told that she was The Savior… and no one in the town knew what to do with what they'd become.


	28. Chapter 28

Emma was a realist. Life was hard, evil won more often than not, fairytales didn't exist – neither did true love or love at first sight – and when it came to "evil" sometimes it was easier to join them then try to beat them. With that in mind, she became a self-professed thief… and met Neal Cassidy.

Neal… who knew most of the same facts she did – except for a bit more, not that he told her this. Fairytales _did _exist – and so did true love and love at first sight.

He learned that in the back of the yellow bug.


	29. Chapter 29

Red runs. Red runs _a lot _– and in a lot of ways – and most of the time it's because of the wolf. Once she learns what she is, she runs from getting too close to people because she doesn't want the wolf to hurt them. That's a habit that carries over into Storybrooke when the curse breaks and she knows she's going to turn again. It's a horrible necessity that she hates.

But then David and Granny (Belle tries to help) prove to her that running isn't necessary.

And she runs again – this time for the sheer joy of it!


	30. Chapter 30

Weakness. Belle hates that word; she hates the times when it feels as if she's surrounded by it, she hates feeling it herself, and she certainly hates the fact that _she _is apparently her true love's weakness. That isn't how true love is supposed to work, but apparently it is, and she hates that too. She tells Rumplestiltskin as much one day in the middle of trying to plan for the problem that is Cora… and that's when he tells her something miraculous.

Regina's wrong. She – Belle, the bookworm princess turned caretaker and librarian – isn't Rumplestiltskin's weakness; she's his strength!


	31. Chapter 31

Snow has been a wreck ever since she met David in her dreams and she knows it. But she can't help it because she knows other things too – things that make her physically hurt, give her the worst feeling in the world. She knows that David can't leave that dream world without her help. She knows what it's like to be stuck there. And those are things that she just can't stand.

But then she's back at his side, leaning over him, about to wake him, and she wants to know – is this what he felt when he woke her?


	32. Chapter 32

You never know what you have until you no longer have it. That's what they say, and Henry realizes now that it's true. It's a cruel lesson to learn at his age. He already has so few friends, and then he walks off the school bus only to be told that Archie's dead and Emma thinks that the Evil Queen did it. But what he doesn't understand – can't and _won't_ understand, is why? Why does all of this keep happening to his friends and his slowly-growing family? And why does it always have to pull his mom further from him?


	33. Chapter 33

There were a number of things that Belle honestly didn't realize she could do before she met the Dark One – mostly because she'd never been allowed, thanks to her royal status. Stupid things like dancing with a broom – or sweeping a room at all. Practical things like raising a garden. Amazing things… like falling in love. But there are other things – things that are _almost as _equally amazing as love – that Belle learns once she's alone. She can _defeat a Yaoguai_… and she can take care of herself.

The latter is an important, necessary lesson, but its price is steep.


	34. Chapter 34

Rumplestiltskin has long taken it for granted that Belle is willing to fight for their relationship and is constantly doing so. But now he's lost her in the worst way – physically she's there, mentally she isn't – and he vows never to take her for granted again… if he can get her back.

He's used to fighting for Baelfire – he's done that for nearly as long as he can remember – but fighting for Belle is a different and new game entirely. In a way it's harder, because he doesn't know what to do. But he knows he'll do whatever it takes.


	35. Chapter 35

"My father's a little nervous. We're headed to a family reunion. Sorry."

Emma realizes later just how much truth was inadvertently packed into that statement. Rumplestiltskin, as it turned out, was _Neal's_ father. That makes Rumplestiltskin and Emma… something, doesn't it? She has no idea what to think about the situation, but she dose notice that there's something different there, something changing between her and the Dark One, and she knows that he sees it too. Because it wasn't just his "family reunion," it was hers too.

"We're headed to a family reunion." And she wasn't sorry to have gone.


	36. Chapter 36

Neal thought he had put this all behind him – really, he knew he hadn't, but was pretending was nice. After centuries on the run, he wants to be angry when he's caught, when Emma tries dragging him back to his father – and in a way, he is. But in another way, there's a small part of him that wants to be glad he has a chance to stop running. There's a part of him that wants to go with Emma again, _be _with Emma again… and maybe there's even a tiny, long-buried part of him that wants to see Rumplestiltskin.


	37. Chapter 37

No one was particularly prepared for the trip that Rumplestiltskin, Emma, and Henry took to Manhattan – least of all, it would seem, Mr. Gold. Neal, Emma mused, was handling the situation that had unfolded quite well – better than she was by a mile, once she learned that Baelfire and Neal were the same person. Henry said he thought it was cool – but had become awfully quiet on the way home as the implications started to hit him. Emma herself was still reeling because – well, she'd _had a child with the Dark One's son! _

And the whole thing was killing Rumplestiltskin.


	38. Chapter 38

She doesn't know this man on the other end of the phone – she doesn't know her own name right now – but the longer he speaks to her, the more she wishes she did. She wishes she knew him, wishes she knew who she was, _hopes _that she just might be the woman he's describing.

For the first time, she feels something – maybe even something _for him _– and she wishes they could talk face to face. But they can't… because he's dying… and part of her feels like dying right along with him. After all what's life without knowing what matters?


	39. Chapter 39

Regina knows that Dr. Hopper's Ph.D. comes from a curse, so she usually doesn't put much stock in the man's professional opinion. It's not the advice of a professional, but of a bug. But she's not stupid either, and there's a reason that she gave Dr. Hopper that Ph.D. He was genuinely good at his job, with or without the piece of paper to prove it. Yet sometimes she's still surprised when he manages to get something so… right.

Like telling her that her emptiness might be filled by being a mother – helping her realize exactly when that emptiness started.


	40. Chapter 40

It hurts. Eventually, everyone encounters hurt. _Life _is one big pain if you let it become one. It physically _hurts _like nothing he's ever experienced when August begins to turn into wood again. And it mentally, emotionally hurts in an entirely different way when the transformation is complete, and he realizes what sort of a freak he's become.

It hurts. It hurts like nothing else that Snow has ever encountered when Regina shows her that her heart is blackening. There's nothing she can do to stop it, and that terrifies her.

Then she finds August, and they help each other.


	41. Chapter 41

Regina's not sure where she gets the brilliant idea, but the parts of her that hate Rumplestiltskin the most love it, and she knows she'll make it happen.

A Storybrooke personality for Belle was never in the plan – how should it be when Rumplestiltskin thought her dead? So now Regina has a chance to play – to decide exactly what to turn the Dark One's true love into – and she knows exactly how to dig at him… if he'll even notice.

A barfly. Belle will become a barfly… just like Rumplestiltskin's first wife.

Regina wonders if he'll fight for Belle then…


	42. Chapter 42

Regina wants to believe – to _remember _– that Snow White really is an awful, unforgivable person, really she does… Sure, she was once a bratty little girl with an unforgivably big mouth. But unforgivable as a whole? Sometimes whatever goodness remains in Regina struggles to believe that – not that she pays those parts of herself any mind, of course.

She reminds herself frequently while under Rumplestiltskin's shape-shifting spell that she's here with Snow White to try to kill the girl – the no good, rotten, spoiled, stupid girl who always gets everything! But sometimes, when face-to-face with Snow, that's hard to remember.


	43. Chapter 43

He's dead. Neal is dead, dead, dead… and Emma? Well, Emma is crushed, crushed, crushed. Which is stupid, isn't it? Neal's already broken her heart once, a long time ago, he shouldn't have the power to do that again. But he does. Even from the proverbial grave, after having only been back in her life – having only known Henry – for a short period of time, he's gone again, and she's left in as much pain as if he had never left – as if they'd spent the past eleven years being a whole family. That confuses her… and it kills her.


	44. Chapter 44

**Here's a little bit of Hook... and it's also the last drabble, since I'm only covering the first two seasons. Thanks for R&amp;R-ing!**

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Baelfire was a boy, just a hurting little boy, when Killian first met him – had him dragged out of the water like an overgrown fish – and despite their differences now that Baelfire is a man who's also trying to win Emma's affections, Killian still sees the remnants of that boy in "Neal's" eyes. It's there, almost always, in the way that he looks at Rumplestiltskin –the same way that he looked at Killian that day he found Milah's likeness aboard the Jolly Roger. It's the look of a boy who's been hurt by a father-figure, and that realization flabbergasts Killian.


End file.
